The Book of One Shots

Pulling a Heist With Your Netrunner

It was 2069, the future. People had implants, corpo rats ruled over basically everything, crime was at an all time high, it was the basic cyberpunk life. I lived in the bustling metropolitan city of Nu Tokyo, the city of dreams. The OG city was San Francisco. It was later changed to Nu Tokyo after the 6th Corporate War, which took place in 2033. Japan won and the western side of the New United States started adopting eastern customs, habits, traditions, market, even more immigrants, too. Though of course the city had hella diversity, like you've never seen.

It was a large city, mostly surrounded by water. Ocean to the entire west, the Nu Tokyo Bay to the east and northeast. To the southeast was San Jesus, originally San Jose. It was a smaller city, heard it used to be bigger though. It was home to more cartels than you could possibly think of, always at small-time war with each other. Not many dared to enter city limits, but those who did were in for a quick death.

I resided in a Megabuilding apartment close to the center of Nu Tokyo, Megabuilding C6 in the Redlight District. I was twenty-two stories up. There were about six in the city, roughly evenly dispersed throughout the districts. The Megabuildings were filled with apartments, restaurants, weapon shops, anything you could think of really. You could wake up, go grab some grub, buy some iron, maybe some clothes, and leave with ease. Residing with me, was a long time choom of mine, Emily.

We grew up in the southern suburban district of Santo Kiriko. We lived on the same street actually. All we ever did was hang out together when we were young.

I was more of the rebellious boy growing up. Loved roughhousing with other kids around the block, learning about vehicles and weapons, and just doing things without my parents knowing, which of course all of those things landed me into trouble, but I didn't really care. I got out of it someway or another. As I grew older, I spent more time away from my parents, trying to earn money for myself. Stealing things, breaking stuff, getting into fights. Hell, I remember when I took my first gig from a fixer at age sixteen. No implants, no protection, and all on my own. I was tasked of stealing some gang leader's datashard from his apartment and bringing it back.

My parents weren't happy and neither was Emily, but I managed to come home with a broken nose and a fist full of cash that I could do whatever I wanted with. Seeing that I could just do work for money, made me realize I could go bigger, do bigger tasks and get more money, and fame at that. I wanted my cred to skyrocket and get big in the city. I wanted to be the talk of the town. That's when I realized...

I wanted to be an Edgerunner.

Now Emily was different. She was more of the inside type. She stayed indoors and tinkered with electronics, messed with software, and dabbled in a bit of hacking. That was her thing. She loved the net. She ate, slept, and breathed the net. She just found it so interesting and way up her alley. Every time I'd visit her, she'd be in her room just glued to the computer screen. I remember seeing her hack into the entire suburb's collective net, seeing everyone's private data, bank accounts, and browsing history, which caused her to be scarred for several weeks. She knew about my wish for fame along the edge, and was worried about it, given how dangerous it was. Though at the same time, she had her own goal. She wanted to be the best tech wiz of all time.

I was somehow able to get her to become a netrunner at the age of eighteen. How I convinced her...? I mentioned that she could make a living off of using the net and hacking things. She could do jobs for people. I also mentioned that she'd be able to work with me as well since our goals could be met at the same time. Emily agreed and we then became an Edgerunner duo together.

She made the big decision of chippin' in. She had a neural interface port installed in the back of her head, which could be covered with a hair slot easily to hide. She then got Makoto Optics Mk3s that helped her see electronics through walls, allowing her to quickhack whatever she wanted. She also got the other basics; The holo for calls, a chip slot for cyberdecks, and a personal link on the wrist.